Boarding House for the Arts brings buzz

Guelph Mercury

The new arrival in the site of Guelph’s old civic museum has rightly generated some buzz in the local arts community and beyond it.

Given the pace that public ventures in the arts realm often creep to fruition, it’s incredible that this space has already opened its doors. After all, the deal to purchase it from the municipality only closed in late November.

Had this been a strictly public undertaking — as some had pushed for in the community — it might have taken years for this type of centre to get off the ground. As a private enterprise with public institutions supporting it, Boarding House for the Arts is something of a hybrid and got off the ground with remarkable speed.

It will be somewhat politically dogged by city hall watchers displeased at how the bidding for the Dublin Street facility came to be resolved. The potential value of possible competing bids for this real estate may never be known. That will create part of the cloud over this venture, as it’s an unknown whether council accepted less than market value for this asset when it selected a preferred bidder — and this use for this complex.

But that ilk of criticism will fade if Boarding House for the Arts can succeed at such things as offering an operationally sustainable exhibition venue for holdings like those of the Macdonald Stewart Art Gallery’s permanent collection. It’s a huge win for the public and for the gallery to have elements of that impressive collection much more in the public realm.

It should also be a terrific exhibition space for students and teachers connected to the University of Guelph’s school of fine art and music. We hope it will also go beyond showing just U of G student and faculty work and provide an additional marquee venue to show the works of other local artists as well.

Good luck Boarding House. May it find a niche and thrive. This often self-representing artists community will be richer if that comes about.